Despite a recent swoon in crude prices, Midland’s labor market continued to hold steady, according to August data.

The Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday that its Midland metropolitan statistical area had an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, down from 3.4 percent in July and up from 2.9 percent last August.

The city’s civilian labor force shrank by almost 500, to 96,486 from 96,978 in July while the number of employed Midlanders fell to 93,380 from 93,729 in July.

“Everyone may be baffled by what’s going on here, but Midland’s unemployment is basically unchanged,” said Willie Taylor, executive director of the commission’s Workforce Solutions Permian Basin.

“The workforce population is holding steady all over the region,” he said.

Midland lost 100 jobs between July and August as a 300-job loss in the mining, logging and construction sector and a 200-job loss in the government sector was offset by 100-job gains in the manufacturing, the trade, transportation and utilities, the education and health services and the leisure and hospitality sectors.

For the year, Midland added 2,800 jobs for a 2.9 percent job growth rate. This was dominated by a 1,400-job surge in the trade, transportation and utilities sector.

Taylor acknowledged the mining sector has been losing jobs and estimated that 15 percent to 20 percent of those workers have left the area -- primarily those who didn’t live here full time but lived in man camps, RVs or hotels while they worked their shifts. But he believes other industry sectors have been absorbing those loses, keeping the unemployment rate relatively low.

“I credit the economic development folks who have helped create diversification,” he said.

St. Louis-based Edward Jones is part of that diversification trend and is planning a nationwide hiring event for financial advisors. The Midland office will be participating with an open house 5:30 p.m. Thursday at 2602 W. Kansas Ave. for those interested in becoming financial advisors.

Despite the fact that Midland continues to see one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state and nationwide, Taylor expects that to change.

“I was in the Odessa Workforce office the other day and every person coming in -- and there was a steady stream all day long -- was filing for unemployment. So we could see a spike as the year comes to an end,” he said.

Statewide, the unemployment fell to its lowest level since January 2001, coming in at 4.1 percent, down from 4.2 percent in July.

While Amarillo had the lowest unemployment, the highest was in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission at 7.9 percent.